


Nightmares

by HyperKid



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddles, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Jester snuggles, Multi, Nightmares, mentions of torture, non verbal character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-29 08:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21407434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperKid/pseuds/HyperKid
Summary: The others don’t know about Jester’s nightmares until one wakes her in tears. The Nein are good at handling that.
Relationships: Beau/Yasha/Jester/Caleb/Fjord/Caduceus, Polynein, Widojest & Beaujes primarily
Comments: 14
Kudos: 125





	Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> HK: Look, it’s cold outside so I just want soft, okay?   
Mollymauk: Nothing wrong with soft.   
HK: Right.   
Mollymauk: Or with whump.   
HK: I’m genuinely never sure what counts as whump?   
Mollymauk: Usually it involves Caleb.   
HK: ... I mean you’re probably not wrong but that’s not a big help definitionally?   
Mollymauk: Did you think I was here to help?
> 
> WARNINGS!! Mentions of character trauma, big sads 
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one but that’s never stopped me before!

Jester’s nightmares aren’t like the others. They’re not loud like Caleb’s, shaking cries and flames from his fingers. Not lasting like Fjord’s, ending with sea water choking his lungs. Not sharp like Nott’s, that so often end with a knife in her hand. 

Jester’s nightmares are of the dark. Of being alone, all alone, unknown, forgotten, and uncared for. They leave her shaking, curled into the smallest ball she can be. As silent as can be. 

Trying not to take up space. 

Sometimes these days they include chains, knives, cages and pain. Losing the ones she loves so much. Being taken from them forever. 

Somehow, it’s those that the others notice. Because when she has those nightmares she wakes with tears on her cheeks, sobs in her throat, sometimes a cry on her lips. But it’s also how they find what works. 

When they’re on the road, they all sleep together as a matter of course. Tucked up inside the bubble, there’s no room for anything else. It’s Caleb who wakes with her the first night, reaching out to pull her close to his chest. 

She all but climbs inside his coat with him, hiding her face in his chest and doing her best to make no sound. The cold of her absence is enough to rouse Beau at least enough to grumble her displeasure and tuck herself flush to the tiefling’s back once more. 

And she stills. Settles. Their warmth, their weight, or just their presence eases the knots from her back. The first flash of damp on his chest tells Caleb she’s crying. 

One hand shifts to her hair, to soft, soothing motions as he wraps himself around her in every way he can. Beau, bless her, is a deeply cuddly fuck when she’s asleep and she’s more than helping, holding onto Jester like she wants to absorb her. 

The tears don’t stop. Not so easily. But the shaking does, and the way she clutches shifts from painful to smooth. Caleb doesn’t have any words to offer her, not if she won’t break the silence first. 

The others are nearby, still sleeping or on watch, and he doesn’t know if she wants them to know. Doesn’t know if they noticed. 

But she burrows herself against him and brings Beau with her until Caleb genuinely isn’t sure whose legs are whose, and they all fall asleep like that. The next morning involves some slightly complicated untangling and knees or elbows in tender places, but Caleb doesn’t complain. Nor does Beau, though she does look a little confused. 

Jester doesn’t say a word about it, bright and cheery as a sunbeam as she bounces around getting ready to leave. When Fjord asks how she slept, her smile barely even falters. Little enough that it catches Caleb’s attention. 

When did she start lying to them? 

But she finds a quiet moment with him, just before they go. Nudges awkwardly against his side with hers until she’s worked her way in under his arm. Thanks him in a voice so soft he can barely hear it. 

Caleb tells Beau at their first break spot. 

Not somewhere Jester can see, or where the others would notice. Just pulls her aside, lowers his voice, tells her quietly that Jester’s had a nightmare. That they woke up so tangled because that’s what had helped. 

** 

Jester doesn’t ask why Beau joins her in bed at the next inn. It’s no effort to push two small beds into one, and Beau is adorable when she’s embarrassed. And the tiefling is so happy to touch, to be cuddled up, that she doesn’t care why. 

Maybe she hopes it will help the nightmares go away. 

It does, too. So if they come to an inn where there’s not enough beds for one each, Jester and Beau are the first to share. When they spend their first night back in the Xhorhouse, it takes precisely two minutes to rearrange their room for the new configuration. 

Gradually, if Jester wakes she begins to cuddle to Beau herself. To worry less about waking her friend before seeking comfort. Even asleep, Beau will tug her close and burrow her face into whatever soft flesh is closest. 

It makes Jester giggle in the dark, soothes the tightness in her throat. Reminds her that Beau is still here. And if Beau is here, the others are too. 

If Beau does wake up first, she does her best. Strokes Jester’s hair, cuddles her up until she wakes with a strangled sob on her lips. She never asks questions; Beau’s awkward with words at the best of times, and this feels like something so private. Intimate and personal. 

Beau’s a little afraid of those kinds of conversations. 

But Jester doesn’t want to talk either, so it’s perfect. 

** 

Beau ends up taking on the brunt of cuddling duty, as Jester’s roommate at every place with walls. But she spends her nights with most of them, from time to time. And from time to time that means all of them have woken to a cold bed and shuddering ball of tiefling. 

When they’re on the road, it’s the puppy pile from sheer force of habit. And without talking about it, they come up with a plan. 

It starts with Caleb making sure that he’s next to Jester, to watch over her if she wakes. To see if this is a rare occasion or something he just hasn’t noticed before. 

Because Beau knows, she exchanges a look with the other human and wedges herself firmly on the other side. There’s jokes about human sandwiches and Jester is delighted to be the center of attention. She’s more than happy to cuddle up, to offer her favours to any of them who have time for her. 

And when nightmares curl her into a ball so stiff every muscle shakes, this time Caleb nudges Beau awake. They share another long, worried look. And Caduceus, ever perceptive on watch, notices. 

So when he goes to have Beau relieve him, he sets a hand on her wrist. Tells her quietly that she can sit by the fire, and he’ll take her spot. Beau watches with a critical eye while he wraps himself tightly around tiefling and wizard, but Caduceus is so big that she simply can’t fault his technique; he tucks both into his stomach and simply folds his legs up around them. 

Fjord and Nott have questions when they wake, and jokes are made. They can’t be trying to keep Jester warm; she doesn’t feel the cold. And she’s not warm bodied enough to be the ideal space heater, not when Caduceus Clay is right there. 

The big firbolg shrugs it off with a smile as cleric solidarity, and though Jester is visibly puzzled she agrees immediately to get some more. 

They’re on the road a few more nights before Fjord and Nott work it out. They don’t know specifics. None of them have any details. But they deal with it the way they deal with all the group’s nightmares. 

Wrap them in love and do whatever works best. 

With Beau, that tends to mean finding her something to punch in the morning. Caleb sometimes has to be left alone, or woken if magic spills. 

Fjord prefers to be left alone, so he says, not wanting to be a burden. Funnily enough it’s Nott who tells him to fuck off on that one, lifting his head into her lap and stroking her fingers through his hair til he falls back to sleep. He tries to protest, but she gives him a sharp look. 

He can’t deny it helps. So they all take turns. 

Caduceus may be easiest of all. He doesn’t tend to have bad dreams, and when he does, he wakes with the Wildmother in his heart. Soft flowers bloom around him, and seeing their petals soothe him. He’s never against a good cuddle though, tucking himself up to the others to work through the shakes. 

Nott claims that goblins don’t dream. The others pretend to believe her, don’t question the days she wakes with tears in her eyes. As always, Jester is the first to tug her into cuddles. And so long as Nott can pretend it’s for her comfort, she lets herself enjoy it too. 

Yasha, when she’s with them, has nightmares so violent that sometimes the only answer is to move. To get as far away as possible, or cast a holding spell on her. Having Jester fight through to wake her always ends in healing magic on both sides; they think they all know why now. 

Seeing what demons haunt their barbarian friend puts those rare nights of screaming into perspective. 

Fjord still doesn’t believe she didn’t know the truth. Jester and Caleb are both quick to shout him down if he mentions it. 

But the half orc has too many nightmares about betrayal and blood to let suspicions slip aside. 

The Mighty Nein aren’t exactly good at talking about these things. Not their worries or concerns. But they’re getting better, when not given an alternative. 

What they are pretty good at is supporting one another when it counts. Whether it’s by arms or by group hugs, as long as they don’t have to talk about it, the Mighty Nein are there. 

**Author's Note:**

> HK: Well, I’m still on the holidays so wish me luck keeping this writing streak alive! Hoping to get at least one more tiefling shenanigans out and then I have a looooot of Fey King to write :P


End file.
